'Tis the season for new commitments and resolve to do better, be better; to set some goal for self-improvement. It is the right time to make some commitment to progress in your Christian life. But I urge you to do it with spiritual realism, with grace, and with dependence on the Spirit's help if it is to happen at all.
Jonathan Edwards, too popularly and narrowly known as a severe, fire-and-brimstone preacher from Northampton, Massachusetts, once made the following resolution in January: "On the suppostiion that there should never be at any one time but one person who had the right mark of Christianity in him, resolved, that I be that man." It went something like that.
Well, you might be encouraged to know that by July of that same year, the sincere pastor Edwards was making that resolution for a second time. That's grace. So I urge you from this example to resolve, resolve, and resolve again and again to be more like Jesus. Do it with strong resolve. Resolve a second, third, fourth time; don't give up. But do it with humility, knowing that by July you will probably need to renew the commitment. Do it with dependence on the Holy Spirit--who's pretty good at knowing how to transform you--how to "stamp" the image of Jesus into you. Happy New Year!
-Larry
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